Page:Live and Let Live.djvu/105

Friday the baby is to be christened, and Saturday is always a busy day—so you must wait till Sunday comes, and say no more about it."

It is said, the worm will turn if you do tread on it. Lucy had nothing of the reptile in her nature, but she did turn, and said in a voice that should have penetrated the lady's conscience, "You promised, you promised, Mrs. Ardley!"

"Hush, child—go and lay away your cloak and hood."

"But you did promise her, mother," said one of the children, "and you always tell us we ought to keep our promises."

"Certainly you ought, and so I always do unless I have very good reasons for breaking them."

Half an hour afterward Alice Ardley asked her sister Belle where the basket was she promised to give her. "I have concluded to keep it myself," replied Belle; "I want it very much to keep my doll's hat in."

"But you promised to give it to me,"

"So I did; but mamma says we may always break our promises if we have good reasons for it."

A natural application, and not a very forced version of the mother's ethics.